


A Parting Gift

by GulJeri



Category: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Genre: Cardassia, Fluff, Goodbye, M/M, Post DS9
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-04
Updated: 2015-12-04
Packaged: 2018-05-04 21:32:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 923
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5349245
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GulJeri/pseuds/GulJeri
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This is a re-write of Garak and Julian's goodbye scene from DS9 + five years later. (Happy ending.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Parting Gift

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Gilorablue (on tumblr)](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=Gilorablue+%28on+tumblr%29).



"Garak," Julian said quietly, approaching his friend from behind, brows drawn together in sadness, the corners of his mouth turned down. He was holding something, but for several moments Garak was too lost in his grief to turn to respond to the doctor.

Garak stood silently, his mouth a bit ajar, his eyes slicked with tears and staring straight ahead as his heart felt as though it weighed as much as his home planet, and somehow it had become suspended in his chest.

Julian swallowed, his Adam's apple bobbing silently down, then up, against the brown expanse of his long, slender, throat.

"Garak..." Julian tried again.

Garak gave a small sigh, as if shaking himself out of despair, or at least poking his head up long enough to remember someone else was there and he must face them one last time. He turned to see Julian looking down at something, and when Garak followed his gaze, he saw that the doctor was holding his ragged old teddy bear.

Garak had stitched a few holes closed himself over the course of the years he'd known the doctor.

Julian lifted the bear to chest level, and he tried to smile, but he just couldn't get the right muscles to work.

"I... wanted you to have him," Julian said quietly, offering his childhood friend silently. Kukalaka had been with him back when he'd been Jules.

How he had loved the feel of the bears fur. He had touched it and rubbed it over, and over, and over, so often that he'd rubbed bare spots that had needed mending quite regularly. He had had Kukalaka before he could speak, even though he was far old enough to have began. Kukalaka had not minded if he'd made odd chirruping noises, and the bear had been able to understand him without any words at all.

Kukalaka had been the first thing he'd wrapped his arms around when he'd come out of surgery after his genetic enhancements. Through all the years, when even Julian's very name had changed, Kukalaka never had.

Now he was offering this treasure to his dearest adult friend. Garak was not as cuddly as a teddy bear, and Julian had not had the pleasure of touching Garak's scales nearly as often as he'd rubbed his teddy bear, but he treasured them both immensely. It only felt right that they should be together.

"Please," Julian urged.

Garak had made no move to take the bear. He'd simply been gazing at it, his mouth slightly opened, his tongue peaking out just barely as though he was tasting the air as he thought it over.

Garak's gray hands slowly reached for the bear, and took it, cradling it gently.

"I... I don't know what to say, doctor," Garak said.

That did make Julian smile, just a little.

"Well then, I've accomplished quite the feat," he said, "rendering a voracious vocabulary such as yours moot is something I'd never thought I'd be capable of."

Garak looked up at the doctor with a light sheen of tears over his pale blue eyes.

"Thank you, Julian," he said.

Julian placed his hand on Garak's shoulder, recalling how Garak's hands on his had been the most memorable mark of their first meeting. It only seemed fit he return the gesture at their last.

"Thank you, Garak," he said.

Garak tucked the bear between his elbow and his side, and he lifted one hand between them, palm out.

Julian recognized the gesture, and he pressed his palm to Garak's, as he did his best to smile.

"Perhaps... once Cardassia is... back on its feet--"

"I won't forget you," Julian said.

"Nor I, you."

-x-

Five years later~

Julian Bashir pauses to admire the well kept gardens in front of the home belonging to Elim Garak. He looks around to make sure he hasn't missed seeing Garak crouched or knelt somewhere, tending his plants, but he sees no sign of his old friend outdoors.

When he knocks Garak invites him in, and seems quite eager to see him. He keeps himself in Julian's personal space as much as he can, sometimes coming so close that there's hardly space between them at all.

"Why don't you show me 'round your house, Garak? It looks lovely," Julian says, admiring a doily that is no doubt handmade by the resident of said home.

"That's... very fragile, my dear," Garak says, taking the doily gently and placing it aside.

Ever the polite host, Garak shows Julian around the house as he wishes, chattering all the while, until at last he reaches the last room. Garak pauses dramatically before announcing that this is his bedroom, and if the doctor would please excuse the mess, he would have tidied up had he known he would have a visitor.

Garak opens the door, and Julian pauses in the doorway, and then he enters and moves straight for the bed.

It is a standard, uncomfortable looking, Cardassian bed except for one thing.

Sitting in the middle, against the headboard, is Kukalaka.

Julian turns to Garak and smiles.

"I'm so glad he's kept you company all this time," he says.

Garak inclines his head, and then offers Julian a small smile.

"He has been a... comforting... bedfellow, I must admit. Though I was hoping... that I might have your company tonight."

Julian's face spreads into a slow smile that brings out every one of his dimples.

"Why wait for tonight?" he says, hopping onto the bed, "I think we've wasted enough time already."

-x-


End file.
